I realize that it’s slightly odd to respond to
another letter, but Wayne A. Gilbert’s observations in the
April 28 edition moved me. He said, “I realized my weariness
was really sorrow and loss and longing. My loss of faith in public
acts wasn’t some moral failing; it was a symptom of my
grief.” I share his insight that we Americans “do
righteous indignation and moral outrage quite well, … but we
don’t ‘do’ grief.” I, too, am in deep grief
for my beloved country.
The neo-Torquemada Attorney
General John Ashcroft’s proposed Patriot Act II strips
citizenship, allows secret arrests, and instigates a gag order in
section 202 that obviates the Clean Air Act, which states that
“ … corporations that use potentially dangerous chemicals
must prepare an analysis of the consequences of the release of such
chemicals to surrounding communities.” Under Patriot II, such
essential information would be restricted to government reading
rooms in which copies could not be made and notes could not be
taken. The reports in the reading rooms would not contain
“such basic information as the identity or location of any
facility or any information from which the identity or location of
the facility could be deduced.”
Further, “…
any whistleblowers among them will be charged with a criminal
offense, even if their motivation was to protect the public from
corporate wrongdoing or government neglect.” I’m
getting all this from an article by Nat Hentoff in The Progressive
(May 2003). Ashcroft is even trying to suspend the writ of habeas
corpus (which dates back to the Magna Carta in 1215). What chance
does our environment, our air, water, soil, flora and fauna in the
West and Southwest have under such an assault?
The only
answer I have personally is to keep on keeping on — to keep
writing and calling congressmen, keep petitioning, keep trying. But
the grief — the grief is real. Thanks to Wayne A. Gilbert for
giving a name to and validating that grief.
Pam
Hanna
Thoreau, New Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The grief is real.
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